the grant report

2008-10-19T19:21:00.000-07:00

O D D P A C K A G I N G

While perusing by copy of “Packaging," Volume 2, 1970,
published by Graphis Magazine. I found a few
odd products that don't seem to hold up well today.
For example:

BAD SKUM
Here's a hair product with a name that
doesn't translate to English all too well.
Does the name of the product describe the contents
of the bottle, or the type of consumer who
it would likely benefit?

SKANK VIN
This little wine might be recommended by the
sommelier on your next date with the girl in the
tube top you picked up at the monster truck show.
Subtle hints of tobacco, a perfumy finish, and judging from
the packaging, not too subtle undertones of fish.

SEVER
A whole line of beauty products that promises
the possibility of losing a limb, or worse.
Don't use these while operating heavy machinery.

EMAIL FLASH
Email bogged down?
One spray of this product on your keyboard
and you can send links to funny YouTube
videos as quick as a wink!

LIFE CIGARETTES
This is just nuts!

IBM CIGARETTES
These were designed by none other than Paul Rand
for what would seem some promotional giveaway.
Imagine these all lined up on the table in the boardroom
with the accompanying ashtray and water glass.
Cigarettes are anathema today, but I'm sure that
there's a mid-20th-century-modern nut out there
that would wet his Dickeys if he came upon these
at a swap meet.

2007-10-13T20:57:00.000-07:00

BACK TO THE OLD LPs

SOFT AND WARM

We all want to feel soft and warm, don't we? Kittens are soft and warm, aren't they? A vaseline-on-the-lens photo of a guy with an oh-so-soft mane of radiant hair is soft and warm, too, isn't it? This is what we call metaphor. I think Frank missed out on another metaphor for soft and warm. The steamy package our kitten left in his box.

2006-11-12T23:26:00.000-08:00

GROOVY MOM

In the early 60s My Mom and Dad both studied at
the Portland Art Museum. This was during the build-up
to the Vietnam War and Dad got drafted. To avoid the general
draft, he was helped by one of his teachers into joining the
Coast Guard. While he was in the service, Mom enlisted
a mutual friend, Fred Lackaff, to take these pictures
as a reminder of the "girl back home".

These are 3D Technicolor stereo slides, only one frame
of each appearing here. Dad had a hell of a time scanning these for me
because they are not in a traditional slide mount, but his
efforts are lovingly appreciated.

These were taken at the Kamm House in Portland,
when Victorian homes were being razed daily.
The Mod-meets-Victorian aesthetic is also apparent in the
window displays previously published herein.

2006-10-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

BEARDS

I've been seeing quite a few young groovy dudes in
Silverlake, Echo Park, Eagle Rock and adjoining areas
sporting late sixties to early seventies back-to-earther
beards of late, and I must say, I think it's swell.
Every once in a while designer jeans accompany these
facial hair fashion statements, but, more often than not, we have
home grown, bluegrass loving, grow-your-own,
alternative transportation idealism.

For anyone who wants to reference the source material
for this bearded idealism, I give you two photos from my home town of
Cannon Beach, Oregon taken in the mid 70s.
There is one only graphic T-shirt in the bunch - "I am not a tourist."

These were my friends, my brother's friends and my parent's friends.
This is a community.
Let's all make daisy chains and stop wearing logos.

2006-10-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

MORE GROOVY 60'S FASHION FROM DAD

By request, here are some one column newspaper ads
my Dad, (Kenneth Grant) did during the early to mid 60s.
They tie in with the previously posted window displays.

This is an ad for the opening of Nordtrom's new
junior shoe store. My Mom (Barbara Grant)
wrote the copy and came up with the name "Feetnik Parlor."
Note how the various shoe lines running up the sides are
described as being "For Mods," "For Rockers." or "For Swingers."
This is from the era that gave us the name Brass Plum for the
Nordtrom junior men's store, which still exists today.

Dad went freelance in the late 60s, doing diplays and ads for several junior
boutiques in the Portland area. Here are a few ads. Skinny was "in".
Again, Dad did the illustrations, Mom wrote the copy and did the lettering.
Footnote: When Dad worked there, one of the shop girls at Clark's
was Portland girl Sally Struthers, later to show up as an actress
on "All in the Family."

Another Clark's one column ad.

Another. This one for a fashion show.
Civil disobedience used to sell swimsuits.

This one wasn't scanned from a newspaper ad,
but the original ad mat. Other than Nordstrom's,
Clark's Junior and Casual Village, Dad worked for
other boutiques with names such as The Blouse Tree
and Glass Butterfly (how psychedelic is that!).

Here are some fashion illustrations Dad did while at the
Advertising Art School in Portland during the early 60s.
He was in his early 20s then. That's where my parents met.
Boy, can he draw! I love the way he renders hands. Very difficult.

Here's the only male of the bunch. Dad used to wear those same
skinny ties and mod jackets to work. I aquired them in the early 80s
when in college and made them a part of my mod fashion repertoire.

2006-09-26T18:44:00.000-07:00

New topic:
WINDOW DISPLAY

My Dad (Kenneth Grant) was display clown (his term) at
Bedell's Department store in Portland, Oregon in the late '50s
and then at Nordtrom's in Portland in the mid '60s, becoming display manager.
He sent me scans of these slides (actually one half of stereo 3D slides)
which I would like to share. They are pretty groovy.
Unfortunately the scans leave something to be desired.
He always wore a suit to work (with skinny tie, of course)
and crepe soled shoes so he wouldn't mark up the display window floors.

NORDSTROM, MID SIXTIES
Dad's Illustrations and type would be pretty groovy today.

NORDSTROM, MID SIXTIES
Another view.

NORDSTROM, MID SIXTIES
This one is just nuts, but check out the art on the boxes.

NORDSTROM, MID SIXTIES
Campus Casuals. I think the figure is a self-portrait of Dad.
Check out the big suspenders holding up the shoe racks.

NORDSTROM, 1967
The clapboard reads:
Scene: Fall, Take: 1967, Sound: Wild

BEDELL'S DEPARTMENT STORE, LATE FIFTIES
It's hard to see, but the background is Japanese newspapers,
complimented by black origami birds.

BEDELL'S DEPARTMENT STORE, LATE FIFTIES
Before the youth oriented sixties, there was the adult-oriented fifties.

One note: The home town department store is gone.
Those Portland department stores I such as Lipman's
Meier & Frank, Bedell's, etc. have all ben replaced by Macy's.
I hate Macy's.

2006-08-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

New topic:
DESIGN LESSONS
Wherein regular folks get to design an album cover.

This one is a perfect marriage of type and image.
I dare say this cover is much better than the
Original Broadway Cast album released by Capitol,
or any of the subsequent incarnations of this musical play.
Ed Ruscha (Oklahoma native) anyone?
Why did the designer feel that the couple needed to
be represented in two different mediums (stock photography
and clip art). I'm persuaded...almost.

Perhaps the longest album title of all time:
For One In My Life the Mellow Contemporary Now Sounds
of W. V. Grant Jr. with Atlanta's famous Goss Brothers
featuring David Davis at the Hammond.

Poor Mister Davis' name is exactly the same tone of green
as the background. Maybe they didn't like him so much.
A good lesson in mixing up typefaces.

The back reads:
Presenting the NOW God for the NOW Generation

One of the creepiest album covers of all time.
This would never work today,
unless, of course, you were Michael Jackson.
Similar combination of scripts and Gothics as the cover above.

2006-07-31T01:01:00.000-07:00

Back to album covers:
A BEAUTIFUL THING

Here's one of the best covers in my collection.
Someone with a deconstructionist bent has removed the
original cover from this album to reveal the cardboard
of the sleeve. Then, a photo of a bouquet of flowers
with a stuffed bunny and a chick that has been
(rather hastily it seems) glued to the surface.

Then, a white square of paper has been added with a gold
foil sticker of a numeral 6 placed over that (Perhaps this is
one of a series. I'd love to see the others).
Interestingly, the 6 sticker is exactly centered, while the
photo is tucked under this to create an asymmetircal composition.

After this, the album was put to use and the scuffed ring appears
which reveals, without showing, the circular contents of the package.

Finally, the thrift store I bought this from has presumably added
the price sticker in the upper-left-hand corner, adding further
tension with its interplay with the 6.

The track listing on the back of the album is centered like the 6 on the front,
but uses black type on white similar to the $0.29 on the front.

A thing of beauty.

2006-07-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

A new topic:
SMALL TOWN PRIDE

These images are from the chamber of commerce
web sites of several small towns in Washington state.
Hailing from a small town in the Pacific Northwest myself,
I was taken with the images featured on these sites.
Some of the photographs were quite banal, some heartwarming
and a few a bit disturbing. I arranged them by theme into diptychs
(plus one triptych) and titled them .

Here they are:

TRUCK/FLAG

COMPETITION

LODGING/LODGING
WAITING/WAVING

THREE CASHIERS

NURTURING/PROVIDING

FORMAL/CASUAL
ACTIVE/AT REST

FOOD/LODGING

ADVERTISEMENT/REFLECTION

HAPPY/HAPPY

EMPLOYEES

PRESENTS/PRESENTATION

REWARDS

WINNER/LOSER

PRIDE

2006-07-06T00:56:00.000-07:00

Today's theme:
FROM THE BEFORE-THEY-WERE-FAMOUS FILE

Here's an obscure album on the Craftsmen label from the early 50s
featuring none other than...Mary Tyler Moore!
I didn't even know she was latin!

Think her dress is being held up by fishing line?

Here she is closer. Proof!

2006-07-06T00:50:00.000-07:00

Today's theme:
VISUAL PUNS!
In which the title sets you up, and the image knocks you down.
Here are three for the Capri pant aficianado,
all with the same pun.

In this one, a dapper Shorty Rogers has caught the eye
of a peroxided grade B (or is it C) starlet.
Looks like those many months of walking through the park in her
striped Capris and silver mules, hoping to attract a lonely
Flugelhornist with argyle socks and penny loafers has finally paid off.

Here's another, from the guy who brought you"I Dig Chicks":

Here's another, this time with the Capri pants replaced with
something from Fruit-of-the-Loom:

By the way...Here's "I Dig Chicks".
One of the best visual puns ever committed to
a paper tip-on over cheap cardboard over vinyl.
This example has a pleasing patina.

2006-07-06T00:24:00.000-07:00

Today's Theme:
THE MASTER'S CALL

Here's an album cover with strange hair and a strange title.
Don't file under bondage, discipline, slave worship, domination or BDSM.
Let's just file it under subservience.

Here, on the back of the album, the whole family is heeding
"The Master's Call". You'll just have to imagine what one of Grace's
face-melting sax solos sounds like.

2006-06-14T20:28:00.000-07:00

ONE NEEDS TO START SOMEWHERE...

Everyone's record collection needs
a little airing out from time to time, so let's start here.

Today's theme:
PRETTY LADIES IN MULTIPLE

Pretty-lady-in-multiple number 1:
She's looking mighty caliente in her silver dress, and although it
seems as if this spandex and organza fantasy has sucked all
the flesh from her bones, she sure does know how to work those poses.

Pretty-lady-in-multiple number 2:
She's got that Irving Penn thing going on, with a little
bit of raver thrown in "just for fun".
She also looks like she could use a trip to Arby's.

Pretty-lady-in-multiple number 3:

Dionne Warwick, no less.
Flippy hair and a somewhat Victorian framing says 1960s.
By the way, if you like the groovy mellow sounds of
Burt Bacharach, you'll flip for this album.

Pretty-lady-in-multiple number 4:
Ah ha ha ha ha!!! Again! Ah ha ha ha!

Pretty-lady-in-multiple number 5:
Della's got that same style dress as
Pretty-lady-in-multiple number 1. Cha cha cha!
Note the name of the arranger and conductor, I kid you not:
O.B. Masingill (the patron saint of feminine hygiene?).

Pretty-lady-in-multiple number 6:
As with pretty ladies in multiples on record sleeves everywhere,
she's lost all inhibition!

Pretty-lady-in-multiple number 7:
Here the art director cropped the pretty lady in multiple for a
Third Man funhouse approach.
By the way, here's Billy May, a former lead trumpeter
for the Glenn Miller band and arranger to such folks as
Frank Sinatra, Nat "King" Cole and Ella Fitzgerald, trying to
figure out what the fuck to do in the late sixties.
I guess Capitol had him under contract.

Pretty-lady-in-multiple number 8:
Well, not pretty lady, but pretty ladies!
Same design convention, but this time you get to take your pick!

If anyone else out there has more covers with this theme,
please send them!

HERE'S ONE:

This sent by our friend Fred Davis.
A bit of photoshop trickery on an existing cover featuring
three pretty ladies, er, eunuchs!

You can find more of these fun covers at the
Complete Triplechin Discograpy:
http://www.triplechin.com/disco/
(enjoy)